1. Bone Structure
Setting, Spine, and Arc

2. Know Your World: The Quest for Authenticity
How do your characters make a living?
Who has power in your world?
What are the rituals of your world?
What are the values of your world?
Does your protagonist share these values?
What is the genre of your story?
What is the backstory? (Focus on the Flaw)
How did the protagonist’s experiences lead to this internal moment of reckoning?

3. Find the Spine
What is the problem? What does the protagonist want? (Dramatic Question)
What internal flaw prevents the protagonist from solving the problem or getting what he/she wants? (Fatal Flaw)
What shift of consciousness needs to take place internally in order for the protagonist to resolve the problem?
How will this internal shift in consciousness play out in the protagonist’s key relationships?
What action does he/she take at the climax of the story that determines whether he/she will achieve or fail to achieve that desire?
What can the protagonist achieve at the end of the story that he/she could not achieve at the beginning?

4. Spine = Structure
Inciting Incident > Sets up the problem (Dramatic Question)
Protagonist’s Reaction Rooted in Fatal Flaw > No Immediate Solution
Quest to Solve Problem > Must Overcome Fatal Flaw
Faces Ultimate Test (Crisis – Obligatory Scene) > No Going Back (Climax)
Overcomes Fatal Flaw and Triumphs or Does not Overcome Fatal Flaw and Fails

5. Spine = Finding Nemo Climax Marlin lets Nemo go Crisis Does Marlin
let Nemo go?
Transformation
Marlin must learn to trust
others and let go of fear
TP#2
Marlin thinks he has truly
lost Nemo – Nemo is dead
Resolution
Marlin finds
Nemo
TP#1
Marlin finds address to Australia
Inciting Incident
Nemo taken from the reef

6. Story Arc
More than anything, (protagonist) wants (deepest desire). But (protagonist) has a flaw. He/she (fatal flaw). When (inciting incident) happens, (protagonist) world is turned upside down and now (protagonist) has to (main plot objective). Along the way he learns (transformation of flaw into strength). When faced with (climax), (protagonist) has to decide (crisis) and (resolution).

7. Story Arc – Finding Nemo
More than anything, Marlin wants to keep his son safe. But Marlin has a flaw. He is so afraid of losing his son that he doesn’t trust him to make his own decisions and keeps him from growing and experiencing life. When his son is captured by divers and taken off the reef, Marlin’s world is turned upside down, and now he has to find Nemo. Along the way, he learns to trust others and let go of his fear. When faced with the possible death of his son, Marlin decides to trust him and let him go. Nemo saves the day, and he and Marlin now enjoy a relationship built on mutual trust and respect.

8. Story Arc - Questions
Does the inciting incident expose or play on the character’s fatal flaw?
Does your protagonist have to overcome his/her fatal flaw to resolve the central problem?